Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpsmtc1!kwallich
From: kwallich@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (Ken Wallich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: The cost of A/ux (Sticker Shock)
Message-ID: <11540138@hpsmtc1.HP.COM>
Date: 18 Feb 88 18:08:33 GMT
References: <11540137@hpsmtc1.HP.COM>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 33

>[...] Look what you'd have paid if you had bought a Lisa and followed the 
>Apple official upgrade path all the way.  You'd now own a $ 8000 Mac Plus.

I seem to remember the "orignial" Lisa having a price tag of around $10,000.
Wouldn't that make it a $14,000 MacPlus?  And let't not forget those of us
(yes, me too), that shelled out $2500 for a 128K Mac.  Following Apples'
upgrade path would have given me a $5000+ MacPlus.  

What I find irritating is that I can build a 386 Unix machine (no processor
flames, I'm only interested in software functionallity, not raw power)
running X-windows, and "good 'ol" system V unix for cheeper than Apple's
proposed upgrade to my $7000 MacII.  All I wanted to get out of A/UX is
a machine to do news and mail transfers, X-Windows, Ethernet, and TCP/IP
type transfers.  I can get most of that functionality a lot cheeper.  Were
not talking MSDOS vs MAC/OS here, were talking similar operating systems
running at similar speeds doing similar things. 

I figure that Apple doesn't expect the "rest of us" to buy A/UX ($650 for
a manual set?  geesh).  However, if we can get it without shelling out
$3200 (!!!! my 155meg 16.5ms WrenIII cost me $1800, can you say "mark up"
boys and girls?) of the upgrade cost for an slow 80MB drive, it may be
worth it.

As a Mac, my MacII is wonderfull, and without peer.  As a UNIX machine,
well, perhaps the SPARC clones are worth waiting for...

--------------------
Ken Wallich			*My views are mine, and mine alone*
Consultant			"Slimey? Mud Hole? my HOME this is!"
DCI 				kwallich@hpsmtc1.HP.COM
@Hewlett Packard		...hplabs!hpsmtc1!kwallich

"If we weren't all crazy, we'd all go INSANE"